Heads You Lose by Christianna Brand Read Free Book Online Page B

and Trotty and went out for a stroll in the orchard; it was nice in the moonlight with the snow on the downs and so forth. I’m afraid, Mr. Pendock, that I may have been trespassing on your property; but it runs so close to the Cottage that I’m always getting mixed up. The orchard’s yours actually, isn’t it?”
    “It’s all mine,” said Pendock briefly. “I lease the Cottage to Miss Morland.”
    “Did you see anyone in the orchard?” asked James, apparently not interested in the layout of Mr. Pendock’s property.
    “I thought I saw a man strolling there too,” said Pippi promptly. “It may have been imagination, and I certainly couldn’t say who it was; but I thought there was someone there. I had to tell the police, of course.”
    At half-past ten, thought Lady Hart, they had all been in the drawing-room, playing Vingt-et-un; all, that was, except James, who had said that he had a headache and would go for a stroll outside. But by eleven o’clock he had come in and gone straight to his room. Fran had said so; she had leaned over the banisters and called down to Pen: “James has gone to bed. He says he’s got a headache and doesn’t want to be disturbed.” And at eleven, Grace Morland had been still alive.
    James was saying to Pippi: “It was probably me that you saw in the orchard. I strolled down that way and was—er—walking about. Funny we didn’t meet. Not that it matters in the least, but the police will ask.”
    “They have,” said Pippi, and gave them a jocular wink.
    The police continued to ask. Inspector Cockrill, with rims of sleeplessness round his birdlike bright eyes, cast his felt hat upon the stand in the hall (now reopened to the public), and led the way into Pendock’s library, and questioned them each in turn. When that was over he summoned them all together, and made a short speech.
    “Well, ladies and gentlemen, I won’t keep you longer than I can help. This is a terrible affair, and you’ve all been very good in helping me to sort out the facts of it. As I see it now, the murder was committed between the hours of eleven, when Miss Morland was last seen alive by her maid, and midnight, when the body was discovered by the butler. In the meantime the hat had been removed from the hall here and was later found upon the body. I have evidence” (he glanced at Fran with an almost imperceptible wink) “that the box was on the hall-stand, and apparently undisturbed, at eleven o’clock. From that time onwards, the doors and windows were locked and bolted from the inside; and after the crime I found them still locked and bolted from the inside.” He paused impressively and rolled himself a cigarette.
    “It’s im poss ible, Cockie,” said Francesca. “And anyway, nobody knew about the hat.”
    “A great many people knew about it,” corrected Cockie sternly. “You knew about it yourself. Lady Hart knew about it. Venetia and Mr. Gold and Captain Nicholl knew about it. Miss Morland herself knew about it. And the butler here knew about it.”
    “And all the rest of the servants no doubt,” added Lady Hart.
    He swung round upon her. “Ah, the servants! I thought we should soon come to the servants. Now, let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that the servants at Pigeonsford House have nothing to do with this crime. For a long time before eleven, and till some time after twelve, the cook was having a toothache; and a most providential toothache it turns out to be, for it kept them all running about with oil of cloves and hot towels and little nips of brandy, I shouldn’t wonder, and anyway, well within each other’s range of observation. None of them could have been absent long enough even to start on the murder. The butler certainly knew all about the hat; but at twenty or twenty-five minutes past eleven he was starting off from Tenfold to bicycle home; and if he did the four miles over the downs, through the snow which is still quite thick up there, lured the poor lady